Yanyuwa is critically endangered. Despite this, the anthropologist John Bradley, who has worked with the Yanyuwa for three decades (and who also fluently speaks the language), has produced an enormous dictionary and grammar of the language along with a cultural atlas in collaboration with a core group of senior men and women, so Yanyuwa's impending extinction may not be permanent.

Yanyuwa has 16 noun classes, distinguished by prefixes. In some cases, different prefixes are used depending on whether the speaker is a male or a female.

Yanyuwa Noun Classes

#

prefix

class

example

1

rra-/a-

female (human centred)

rra-bardibardi "old lady"

2

nya- (women's speech) 0- (men's speech)

male (human centred)

(w)nya-malbu (m)malbu "old man"

3

rra-/a-

feminine

a-karnkarnka "white bellied sea eagle"

4

0-

masculine

nangurrbuwala "hill kangaroo"

5

ma-

food (non-meat)

ma-ngakuya "cycad fruit"

6

na-

arboreal

na-wabija "digging stick"

7

narnu-

abstract

narnu-wardi "badness"

8

possessive pronominal prefixes

body parts

nanda-wulaya "her head", (w)niwa-wulaya (m)na-wulaya "his head"

9

0-

familiar kinship

kajaja "father, dad"

10

various pronominal prefixes

formal kinship for close kin

angatharra-wangu "my wife"

11

various pronominal prefixes

formal kinship-grandparent level

karna-marrini "my daughter's child"

12

various pronominal prefixes/suffixes

formal kinship-avoidance

rra-kayibanthayindalu "your daughter in law"

13

rri- dual and li- plural

human group

li-maramaranja "dugong hunters of excellence"

14

rra-/a-, nya-. 0-

personal names

rra-Marrngawi, (w)nya-Lajumba (m)Lajumba

15

rra-/a- / 0-

ceremony names

rra-Kunabibi, Yilayi, rra-Milkathatha

16

0-

place names

Kandanbarrawujbi, Burrulula, Wathangka

Notes:

(w) women's speech, (m) men's speech, 0- no prefix used.

rra- is a more formal female/feminine prefix often used in elicitations, a- is the informal everyday form. There is only one word in Yanyuwa, rra-ardu "girl", where the rra- prefix is always used. This to distinguish it from the men's speech form ardu "boy", for which women say nya-ardu.

Yanyuwa is unusual among languages of the world in that it has separate dialects for men and for women at the morphological level. The only time men use the women's dialect is when they are quoting someone of the opposite sex, and vice versa. An example of this speech is provided below:

Avoidance speech is speech style used when talking to or near certain relatives: one's siblings and cousins of the opposite sex, one's brother-, sister-, father- and mother-in-law, and one's nieces and nephews if their father (for male speakers) or mother (for female speakers) has died. Occasionally avoidance speech takes the form of different affixes to usual speech, but generally it is simply a change in vocabulary.

Example: In usual speech a digging stick is referred to as na-wabija, but when talking to one of the above relatives, the word used is na-wulungkayangu.

Another set of vocabulary is used during ceremonies and other ritual occasions. Many of the words used in ritual speech are sacred and kept secret.

Example: In usual speech a dingo is referred to as wardali, but during ritual occasions, the word used is yarrarriwira. This is one ritual term which is known to the general public, as are some other terms for flora and fauna.

When on the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands, which is part of Yanyuwa territory, another set of vocabulary may be used to replace the terms used when on the mainland. There is more variance about the usage of island speech than the other speech styles.

Example: When on the mainland, fishing is referred to as wardjangkayarra, but when on the islands, the word used is akarimantharra.

Yanyuwa speakers have actively engaged in making a number of films, and more recently have begun a project to animate important stories and songlines. These include three important films, all of which have extensive narratives in Yanyuwa, with subtitles: